Saturday, June 9, 2012

It’s Saturday and
I’ve decided to stay home while Elder C finishes up his reports at the office.This was Transfer week and as expected, we
were kept running.Monday morning began
with us meeting two Elders in Tuscaloosa.The church and the mission have come up with a new policy on the bicycle
program.Mission funds can no longer be
used in any way to purchase or repair bikes. Even more of a setback, we are not
longer able to purchase bikes from missionaries completing their mission to
sell to incoming missionaries or to help incoming missionaries connect with a
missionary going home to make their own arrangements. It has been hard to let
go of the bikes as Elder Curtis had a pretty good thing going.There were usually several missionaries
willing to sell their bikes for a reasonable price.We would buy them then spend another hundred
or so having them gone over at the bike shop we work with. The final cost to
the missionary was around $250, which was a big savings, paid us back and they
ended up with a good bike.Now any
missionary going home can either donate their bike or pay to have it shipped
home. We were told “We are out of the bike business!”In time it will probably come together, but
for now that is easier said than done.We have missionaries coming from other countries that have no funds and
even in the US there are families that just can’t afford the high cost of the
heavy duty bikes that are needed here.We also have the visa waiters who the mission provides bikes for and
these bikes constantly need repairs or at times we don’t even get back the same
bike we sent out.Hmmmmm

We got a good
laugh over this visa bike that was returned….notice, no handle bars, seat, back
wheel or chain then look to the next picture where it clearly states on the
bike, “Do not add or REMOVE anything from Mission Bike”.

We had quite a go
round this time making sure each of the 11 fulltime missionaries coming in had
a bike, that the five unexpected visa missionaries were taken care as well as
the two Temple Sq Sisters coming. You would think the Temple and visa
missionaries would just be an easy trade with the ones leaving, but you can see
from the picture above – that isn’t always the case. We have learned more about
bicycles than we even knew there was to learn.
Like the fact they have to be fitted to size. You can’t give a bike that
a 5’7” Elder has been using to a 6’5” Elder, or one that fits a 140 lbs to
someone 300 lbs. We had three bikes
“smashed” by a 320 lb Tongan. He’s a great Elder, but we were glad when his
visa came in.

We have had some
happy experiences through all this, though.
A few months ago an Elder arrived from Samoa and literally had
nothing. The MTC had supplied him with
ALL his clothes and even a suitcase. We
gave him the best bike we could find at the time, but knew it wasn’t the right
fit. Just a few weeks ago we were able to use donated funds to purchase him a
brand new bike and boy, was he pleased. He is quite shy, but his face showed it
all. These times are priceless in our
mission memories.

That brings me
back to why we traveled to Tuscaloosa early Monday morning. The two Elders above told us they would donate
their bikes if we would take them out to dinner (this arrangement was made back
when we were still in the bike buying business) We could never make dinner
(they live over an hour from the office) but being down to the last minute they
settled for breakfast and we picked up the bikes. A good trade. The bikes are already in use.
To our surprise, three other Elders ended up donating theirs; that helps in the
mission cause. Hopefully, this will
catch on and we’ll end up with a good supply. Most of the others leaving either
sold or gave to members, or shipped them home. That’s the bike story for now.

We had to hurry
back from our breakfast date Monday to take three visa missionaries to the
airport where they boarded a plane headed to Argentina. Just a few munities later I met five new visa
waiters coming in. The following day we
arrived at the airport to transport the eleven new Alabama missionaries that
Pres. and Sister Holzapfel had met there. Great young missionaries. Elder
Jarvis is from north Mesa. It’s always fun to find connections. That was a full day…interviews at the mission
office and then dinner at the mission home and finally dropping them off at a
hotel where I’m sure they fell asleep as soon as they hit the bed. It had been a long, exciting day for them as
well.

Getting the
missionaries where they need to be is only part of the Transfer planning. I didn’t get the final list of changes until
the day before and with the office full of people wasn’t able to even think of
working on IMOS. There were also large orders for media to be sorted out and
packaged to take to Transfers on Wed. Once again, Elder C was dealing with Tiwi
issues and had been making arrangements to have an installer as well as all the
cars with issues be at the Stake Center.
Will this problem ever go away?
We got there early Wed. to be ready.
It is so nice to only have to drive 15 min instead of 45.

I was able to sit
in on most of the Transfer meeting. With Elder Mancera leaving we got a new
Assistant, Elder Jardine. We work quite
closely with the assistants and are pleased with that choice. After the changes
are announced and the new companions join each other, the President then talks
for an hour or more. All of the
missionaries we picked up this week had heard good things about Pres Holzapfel
and if they had any doubt about it, that was taken away after listening to him.
Among other things, he spoke on the choices we make and how it is easy to blame
other people or circumstances to why we are the way we are. “I have a temper because my dad had a temper,
my family never supported me, I didn’t have a family, I just did what my
friends did, we were always poor so I didn’t have a chance and so forth.” Pres used his own life as an example. I’ve told you before his father left when he
was two weeks old. He had a step-father that was hard on him and has never
joined the church. His mother wasn’t
active so Pres. was mostly inactive growing up.
When he left for college his mother took him aside and said, “Richard,
you grew up in a dysfunctional family.
You can leave and spend the rest of your life going nowhere because of
your past, or you can decide to be a man and make your life better…..you can be
a better father, a better husband, make better choices.” You can see he listened to his mother and we
and the church are blessed because of that choice. I think he uses his own life
as an example so often because there are so many of the missionaries that come
from difficult backgrounds and it is easy for them to become discouraged. We
know how much he cares not only about the work, but the growth and happiness of
the missionaries – young and old. He also presented some great doctrinal
material that day. You’ll have to read
one of his 35 books…..he has given us several and they are very good and
beautiful as well. He has a love for art
and carefully designs all his covers. He
designed the cover for Pres. Packer’s new book showing his artwork. He has also done others.

As I wrote last
week, many of our favorite missionaries left this time including our Sister
Narduzzi from Temple Sq. She is from
Italy and has been telling Elder C that when she leaves she WILL give him a big
hug….and she kept her word. Pres said
just don’t let him see it. Ha…she hugged
him too. Love her!

Just a little on
the Tiwi’s. We had nine repaired that
day and as you know, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to have them worked
on. That night there was already one of
the newly replaced ones that had fallen down again. Groan!
The program is working…driving habits have improved, but keeping the
tiwi working is the issue and even Salt Lake is starting to look at other
options. It’s a process

With that note we
will close for this week.Transfers are
all in place on IMOS and reports should be in Salt Lake for Paul by the end of
the day.We’ll see how long before new
changes are made.This is a mission of
being able to adapt as each day goes on, but we enjoy the challenge.We have a nice surprise planned for next
week.I’ll write about it in our next
letter. God bless and watch over you.

Dear loved ones…. We are almost at a point where we can take a deep breath again before starting on the next assignment which will be ten new missionaries arriving and near the same number leaving. This also means getting ready for transfers. Actually, Elder Curtis has already started with so many new ones coming. The end of the school year brings out missionaries. We have had to fit preparations in between other busy activities so haven’t done much sitting around.

First: Five Zone Conferences in five different locations from the top of Alabama to Montgomery as well as east and west of the state and then one conference in north Miss. These were early morning starts and long days, but enjoyable. As I’ve mentioned, we are only able to catch small sections of training from each conference, but we learned from what we did hear. One thought Pres H. shared was directed to the young missionaries on the importance of their taking advantage of study time, but it could apply to all of us. He said this is the time when we become the investigator and the Lord is our teacher. Interesting thought. He asked the missionaries how they feel when they have a teaching appointment arranged, but arrive to find no one there. Pretty bad. How does Heavenly Father feel when he has asked us to meet with him to study the scriptures or other assigned materials and as He waits for that chance to teach us, we don’t keep our appointment with Him? And even more, what are WE missing? There were many other subjects covered and the missionaries were well instructed.

Second: The Friday following our last Zone Conference my son Lynn and his family arrived for a short visit as they were passing through Alabama. Lynn is enrolled in an on line course to get his nurse practitioner license. Before he has to start his clinical they are traveling via camper throughout the US and parts of Canada. He can do his studies and also made arrangements to pick up work as a traveling nurse along the way. They got here late Friday which was good as it gave us a chance to do some catching up at the office after being gone so much. Paul also had five cars to get ready for a broker that was coming for them. That meant a quick trip to Boaz with the Smiths to bring back four that were finished being repaired and being sold.

We had such a nice time with Lynn, Cameo and their four children, Cora, Granger, Jonah and Ezra. They are good grandkids and love to travel as much as their parents. While here we spent time at Orr Park (the one with the tree carvings) where they had fun finding the carved trees then spent ALL afternoon playing in the creek. Sunday they attended church with us and we enjoyed being able to show them off and also have them meet some of the members that we have come to love. The Primary leaders were quick to give compliments on how sweet they were. The following day was spent seeing some Civil War and Civil Rights sites in Montgomery. They also liked spending time in our apartment pool (we had never even walked over to it in the nine months we’ve been here) and Lynn used the internet center to do his homework.

They had planned to only stay four days but had some problems come up with their camper and ended up being here a full week. Elder C and I had to get back to work on Tuesday so we didn’t see a lot of them the rest of the week. They were busy during that time taking care of their issues which included buying a whole new camper and leaving their old one here to sell. I won’t go into all the details. It was stressful for them, but in the end they had a better camper which insurance helped pay for and were very thankful for us giving them a place to stay while working through it all. We loved seeing them and wish them well with the rest of their travels. If you want to follow along check out their facebook or blog at:Vagabondgenes.blogspot.com

Third: We attended our last Sunday as part of Columbiana Ward. As we were introducing our family we were also saying our “goodbyes”. This has been a wonderful ward and we have made many dear friends. We will miss them and I think we will be missed. Changes aren’t as easy at our age, but we see this as an adventure and opportunity to serve and meet new friends in the Cahaba Heights Branch.It will also be a big help not having to drive that hour a day to the office.

Forth: The move….. With all that was going on, there was a Sister’s training and also the office was packed all week with the Pres. doing interviews, we hadn’t had a chance to even start packing. We left a little earlier on Thurs. Paul drove the van and trailer so we’d have it the next day and I stopped by our new apt. to see Lynn’s new camper and visit a minute. It worked out for them to stay there while figuring things out. By the time I got to Calera Paul had already loaded the heavy couch and several other items by himself and was ready to head for our new area. We were expecting help the following day, but he was anxious to get the job done even if it meant breaking his back. Anyway, to make a long story short, Lynn helped carry these heavy items to the new place and then Paul and I were back to Calera emptying cupboards and closets, etc. The mission has a newly arrived couple that has been assigned to housing, which includes helping with moves. They had told us they would be at our place on Friday morning with some Elders to help. By the time we got a call from them at 9:30 Paul had already been up for hours and loaded the van once again with heavy furniture. (The apt is being closed so has to be emptied.) They didn’t get to our place until 10:30 – without any missionaries – and said they had to be back in Birmingham at 11:30 for their District Meeting which, by the way, was our meeting as well. Goodness. The travel time is at least that long. I think being new; they haven’t realized how long it takes just to get from one place to another. Then to top it off, some Elders from the District in Birmingham called and asked them for a ride. “Ooops….sorry, we have to leave.” We were limited on time ourselves and needed to get the job done that day so there was no waiting. First we unloaded all the furniture we weren’t using at the storage at the Mission Home and then tackled getting things into our place by ourselves. Have you ever moved a washing machine down stairs? Paul was bearing the weight and I was trying to keep it steady so as to not crush him. We did finally get everything we needed into the apt, but not without a lot of groaning and sweating (it was the hottest day of this year) and walking probably three or four miles making trips from the car including up and down the stairs. Paul counted them. Seventeen. If he had his way every missionary would live on the bottom floor. Whew! It didn’t help that he has a bone spur on one heel and an ingrown toenail on the other foot. All is well, though. We’ve spent the night here now and think it will be a good place. It isn’t as big or new as our last one and sits way in the back on the bottom of what would be a day light basement with three apartments overhead. You kind of feel like you’re going into a cave, but once inside it is nice and we look right out into the forest without other apartments blocking our view. If we can get past the long walkway and steps leading to it, it is quiet and private and stays cooler. This will be our home for the rest of the mission. Monday we will make one last trip to Calera to pick up what is left there and to clean the apartment. It will feel good to have this over and hand the keys to the new housing couple to close it up. By the way, we do like them a lot and think we’ll be good friends. This was their first move and they are learning. They also don’t know Elder C and that he likes to just get in and do the job NOW. He is a hard worker and I’m thankful for this characteristic in him. It will be good to be settled and on to the next assignment. (I guess that really wasn’t making a long story short was it?)

We don’t have our Internet set up here yet so I’m not sure when I’ll get this sent. We hope you have a nice weekend and Memorial Day. We did have two other wonderful events take place this week. On Wed night Larisa’s step daughter, Sarah Cummins, graduated from Sahuaro High School in Tucson and tonight Jeanette’s oldest daughter, Marlee, is graduating from Snowflake High. These are some of the special occasions we miss out on being away, but we are so proud of them and wish them all the best as they move forward.